@6, NoCute: Not disagreeing with your assessment of his introspection. I appreciate that putting thoughts and feelings into words can be helpful whether it is to Dan, one's journal, or a licensed therapist. But I'm not getting paid $140/hour an hour to listen to him.

Are we shaking out along stereotypical girl/boy lines? "tell me your feelings" versus "state the nature of your (fixable) problem."? Suggesting it is good thing I'm an engineer and not a therapist!

@10 Nocute: I was in Berkeley, mostly, '79 to '95. Most often I'd read Savage Love with my frozen yogurt at Yogurt Park on Southside. My other in-public titillation was reading the personal ads in the same weekly papers (yes, children, personal ads were once printed on dead trees). The most memorable said "F seeking M, I'm about to get married and I want one last fling - this is no strings attached and has no possibility of leading to anything else." and I thought, Wow, she's going to get a lot of calls! A few years later, I learned who placed the ad (her BFF posted it for her). And yes, she got a LOT of calls!

Anyone know when the SF Weekly (or maybe Bay Guardian?) started to run Savage Love? I was definitely reading it in Berkeley in the early 1990's, then in the Stranger in Seattle in the mid-1990s, then in The Onion's AV Club online and for years now on the Stranger's website.

Luke Perry is this month's cover boy on AARP and most of Dan's letters now come from people who were born after 1991. Sigh.

What is the USRDA of porn? If one could get decent data, it would show that there is a level of porn consumption (tens of minutes a week?) which corresponds with the best health, disease, relationship and even crime (porn up = rapes down has been shown) outcomes. Because zero porn consumption would be a seriously uptight person and ten of hours per week starts to interfere with gainful employment and causes cramping in one's right arm.

And just like your food diet shouldn't be all fats, all carbs or all protein, there should be government PSAs to mix it up in the bedroom.

And what is a parallel of the "food pyramid"? A base of bread&butter, somewhat routine sex, with a middle layer of scratching your go-to kinks, then less frequent efforts at experimental, new-to-you acts, with a VERY small and completely optional top of the pyramid of potentially procreative activities (unprotected-by-birth-control PIV for most, but obviously turkey basters or fertility clinics could be involved).